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The Shadow Bulls
The group headed back toward Artemis’ location, but they decided to take the much more traveled road through Agorice rather than risk being attacked by Orcs again. On the way the group stopped by Gryffin’s tavern, a regular hangout spot for Baqir and his usual adventuring group: Cajus the Agorician Bard and Henry the Hutani Cleric. The two groups share some drinks and have some laughs when the bar owner, Gryffin, who Cajus incessantly flirts with challenged Yao to a brawl for his Diamond. Gryffin proved tough as she brawled Yao out, but lost to him in a second round after he was healed. Dolan turned invisible and stole the diamond back. The group headed south to find Artemis unwilling to meet with them. They stayed in the information broker’s waiting area and waited for Artemis to come down and see them but she didn’t. Dolan tried to turn invisible and sneak upstairs but he stepped on a creaky stair and one of the broker’s daughters brushed him as she went out to see who was on the stairs. Dolan had to make a run for it to get out the window and the girl screamed leading everyone to run to her. Dolan circled around the outside of the house and turned visible just as he entered. Baqir saw him enter and figured it out almost instantly. Dolan just put a finger to his lips and Baqir nodded. Eventually, several hours later Koritha was able to get into the room Artemis was staying in and asked her to come downstairs. Artemis agreed but was very solemn for the rest of the trip. Having wasted the entire day waiting for her to come downstairs the group had to sleep inside the city. They debated over whether to pay the broker for the location of the last two items. It was mentioned that there was an Oracle of blood in Mariq that several other groups had gone to. The group decided to check her out, but they also learned that there was a forest of magical darkness to the south, which the group decided was a likely place for another artifact to be hidden. The next morning they headed to the country of Yunkarth and headed south into the forest of the shadows. The forest was completely dark and the only source of light was Helena’s magic sphere of sunlight. The group had to stick close to each other except for Palar who had blindsight and took the lead. After almost an entire day of traveling the group was charged by one of the legendary monsters of the forest, a shadow bull. Nearly thirty feet tall the bull charged their cart and flipped it. The group sprang into action to try to fight the creature as it smashed Helena’s orb of light and left the group in darkness. Yao finally managed to kill the bull and wanted to take its reproductive organs as a lance but Helena put a quick stop to that by burning them. Palar and Baqir took two of the bull’s four horns and the group debated on whether to go forward or back when Baqir found a cave while trying to calm his horse. The group headed down into the pit and found a half dome room with a door on one end. Every time they opened the door the lights in the room would go out and a map of the stars would appear on the ceiling. Dolan found one of the stars in the ceiling was different from the others and could be pressed like a button. Upon pressing it, it lowered down a bit and the walls transformed from a sky chart into a hieroglyphic story. It told a story of a woman named Neritha, her two daughters and her son, Paran. The woman raised three children and a being of stars known as _______ watched her. One day though, Neritha’s son was called off to war. Some time passed and her son returned, but he was different now. He was hard and cruel, he took both his sisters for a night and when his Mother tried to stop him he stabbed her and threw her body in the well. Paran left and the star being _____ came to Neritha and gave her a whip fashioned from a snake and a chain that would be strong enough to defeat her son. ______ also gave her a light. When Paran came back Neritha confronted him. The two of them did battle and she defeated him and threw his body in the well. She lived for many years end eventually went to rest at the end of the mountains. After the walls told their story the light Dolan had pressed popped out of the ceiling and solidified into a disk. Helena took it and the group now had acquired the golden star.